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Course fees still a reality for Ontario high school students

By Kristin RushowyEducation Reporter

Mon., May 28, 2012

Almost half of all Ontario high schools are still charging students course fees, despite guidelines introduced by the province last fall telling them not to, says an annual report on the state of education to be released Monday.

“Schools have struggled with getting up to speed with the new guidelines,” said Annie Kidder, executive director of research and advocacy group People for Education, which has been conducting the survey of the province’s schools for more than a decade.

Annie Kidder, executive director of advocacy group People for Education, says despite a provincial ban on fees for high school courses, almost half of schools are still charging them. (ANNIE KIDDER / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

“We definitely get calls from parents saying ‘my school is still charging a registration fee.’ This has been a transition year, and there have been complaints to the ministry and there have been times when the province has said to school boards, ‘this is an example under our guidelines of fees that you shouldn’t be charging.’”

The survey found that 45 per cent of high schools charge students “any lab or material fee,” down from 68 per cent before the guidelines were brought.

Kidder said part of the problem is that “in terms of fees for courses, there are so many grey areas in the guidelines, and again, they are only guidelines, not ‘thou must.’ There’s a big difference between policy and guideline.”

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As well, the guidelines allow schools to charge for “enhanced” materials, which means asking students to pay for better or additional art materials or the like — Kidder said there’s no clear definition — though schools are required to provide basic materials free.

The survey found that some 24 per cent of schools are charging students in art class, down from 53 per cent in 2011; 26 per cent charge phys ed fees, down from 41 per cent, and 16 per cent have a music fee, down from 26 per cent last year. Just a handful of schools still charge for French, science and business.

The guidelines, announced last May, said that schools could not charge for texts, workbooks, instruments, science labs or basic “flat fees,” or anything else considered a “mandatory element.” Some schools were bringing in as much as $90,000 through a variety of fees, including those from French workbooks or art supplies.

The report recommends that the province be specific about what materials it will fund and that those should be available to all teens.

On the flip side, those schools that follow the fee guidelines have lost revenue they had come to rely upon, said Jenny Williams, a Toronto District School Board student trustee and president of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association.

“Many teachers are finding it difficult to fulfill requirements like labs or dissections without the required course materials for the classroom,” said the Grade 12 student.

Instead, teens are doing more group work or they watch teachers do simulations in labs.

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“It’s less hands-on, less of a one-to-one ratio and more of a group situation when it comes to science,” she added.

Williams also said schools are holding fundraisers to make up the difference.

“My school ran two concerts this year in addition to our end-of-year concert to raise funds so the music council could pay for new instruments or repair broken ones,” said Williams, who is in the school’s senior orchestra. “Schools are relying more on fundraising; they can’t charge the students, so they fund-raise instead.”

Her school charged admission for the concerts, “not a huge fee but even so, it helped us gather more funds.”

Laurel Broten, minister of education, said the ministry, “Has been clear that fees and fundraising should be used to complement not replace public dollars.”

She said the Liberal government has “significantly increased investments in public education and the People for Education report shows nine years of improvement and progress, by the organization's own measures” in many areas — such as more phys. Ed. teachers in elementary school.

Kidder has heard from principals who laud the fee guidelines as more fair to students, but at the same time they’ve said, “We lost $40,000 out of our school budget. What are we supposed to do?”

Williams said some schools are using “student activity fees” — usually paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the school year — to cover the course fees they once charged, though she hasn’t heard of any big hikes in the amounts this year.

The People for Education survey found that 91 per cent of high schools charge “student activity fees” at the beginning of the year, which run from $10 to as high as $350. Three-quarters of high schools also charge athletic fees of up to $1,000.

“I’ve very surprised that there are still some schools in many school boards asking students to pay fees, even though public education is supposed to be free,” Williams said.

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